Cover Story
Death by Study
It’s late in the day, and I’m on the phone with Pat Durkit. We have never met. But immediately I know this: She’s one of those people whose steadfast pleasantness is actually brute resistance, a refusal to accept just how hideous the world can become. Consider the details: In 2001, Durkit’s granddaughter, Jessica, then 2…
Dog of the Day: Milo
Milo This unusually cute dog is Milo and he’s looking for a home. The folks at Tucson Cold Wet Noses say this about Milo at tucsoncoldwetnoses.com: Milo is a very sweet boxer or pit mix who looks at you with big, brown eyes and is very mellow. He is a love bug and would be…
HOW TO PART III: Splint a Broken Leg
Borderbeat.net reporters Amanda Portillo and Lauren Adams have a little fun with educational first aid videos when out in the desert. The audio slideshows are a fun watch for anyone who enjoys taking a walk onto any outdoorsy landscape. (Photographs by John deDios)
Artistic Range: David F. Brown at Temple Gallery
“Auto Pilot” is among the pieces on display in David F. Brown: Paintings and Drawings from March 5 through March 30 at Temple Gallery, 330 S. Scott Ave. The exhibit is on display from Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and before Arizona Theatre Company Performances.
More Gay Bashing From Sen. Jack Harper
‘ A few weeks back, we shared state Sen. Jack Harper’s rambling comments about why gays shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military. Now Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini writes about legislation under consideration by the Arizona Legislature that would put married couples ahead of single people when it comes to adoption: Recently, a…
Bye, Lucas
Dear Corey: Not only does it suck that you OD’d at 38; it sucks that in your obit in a stupid entertainment rag, License to Drive is the first movie they list. Yes, yes, Lost Boys is a classic from those bucolic Reagan years, but those sons of bitches forgot Lucas. I never forgot Lucas.…
GOP Lawmakers Push Through Budget Plan
The GOP budget plan is working its way through the appropriations committees at the Legislature. Howie has the details: Legislative panels approved more than $1 billion in spending cuts, nearly $500 million in raids on special funds and some other budget maneuvers on Tuesday in their bid to balance the budget. The votes in the…
Farley Report: GOP Budget Proposal Is “A Bloodbath That Will Last For Generations”
The latest dispatch from Rep. Steve Farley sums up many of the budget proposals that are making their way through the Legislature this week: Allow me to apologize on behalf of Republican leadership. While last week was officially declared as “Budget Week”, they never actually came up with any budget proposals. So this week is,…
TWTV: Rock ’N’ Roll Muralist Joe Pagac
Tucson Weekly TV catches up with muralist Joe Pagac, the artist behind the rock ’n’ murals popping up on the side of the Rialto Theatre and Bookmans.
Dog of the Day: Sugar Booger
Sugar Booger is among the dogs that the folks at Cold Wet Noses are trying to find a home for. Here’s what Sugar Booger has to say at tucsoncoldwetnoses.com: Hi my name is Sugar Booger. I am about 8 months old and a pretty mellow gal though I wouldn’t mind another dog to play with.…
Another One Bites the … Comes Out!
California State Sen. Roy Ashburn joined a long GOP tradition today of finally admitting he’s gay to a Bakersfield radio host. I particularly enjoyed his excuse for his anti-gay voting record–his constituents. I can guarantee Ashburn that there are gay people in his district in Kern County, but I understand from a SF Weekly blog…
Have You Seen this Dude?
Our friends at Lulubell Toy Bodega sent out an e-mail last night asking for help locating about $5,000 in merchandise stolen from the 439 N. Sixth Ave. store and gallery. Here’s their request for help, which includes finding the 3-foot tall fiberglass guy posted above: We are a very small, locally owned business with 2…
Go Rush, Go!
Health reform prayer. Chant three times, daily:Please Lord Vishnu, now more than ever, do what you need to make sure our government passes health reform. From Rush Limbaugh yesterday: I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country.…
Sparklehorse Remembered
NPR recently paid tribute to Sparklehorse, musician Mark Linkous who took his own life at the age of 47 on Saturday, March 6. You can hear and read more here.
Slashing The State: The GOP Budget Plan for Arizona Emerges
Republican state lawmakers were finally releasing details of their spending plan for the upcoming year earlier this week—and, to no great surprise, the proposals are brutal to anyone who cares about the citizens of the state. Among the lowlights: • All-day kindergarten is gone. • KidsCare, the program that provides health insurance to children in…
Artistic Range: Josh Goldberg and David Pennington at the Davis Dominguez Gallery
Josh Goldberg Yud, or the End of Night “Yud, or The End of Night,” by Josh Goldberg, is on display at The Davis Dominguez Gallery , 154 E. Sixth St., in Redefining Space: Abstract Paintings by Josh Goldberg and David Pennington. The show runs from March 11 until April 24. The gallery is open Tuesday…
More Brain Talk: Evolution of Mind and Brain
The UA College of Science’s Tuesday night lecture series, “Mind and Brain,” is drawing near-capacity crowds at UA’s Centennial Hall, which is no small accomplishment. Here’s a video of the first lecture by Dr. Lynn Nadel, who talked about “Building Brains, Making Minds.” This week in the free series: Anna Dornhaus, assistant professor of ecology…
Earmark Ban on the Horizon?
Last week, we were skeptical about a Republican Jonathan Paton’s vow to stop the tradition of earmarking in Congress as he sought to unseat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. We argued that it seemed an unlikely proposition. This week, Democrats are now talking about banning earmarks, according to Roll Call: As they try to reclaim the ethical…
HOW TO PART II: Stop a Bleeding Wound
Borderbeat.net reporters Amanda Portillo and Lauren Adams have a little fun with educational first-aid videos when out in the desert. Photographs by John deDios
Did Republican Jesse Kelly Court John McCain’s Support Before Endorsing J.D. Hayworth?
Former congressman J.D. Hayworth’s challenge to U.S. Senator John McCain in this year’s GOP primary is exposing all sorts of fault lines in the Arizona Republican Party. Hayworth himself has noted that the race was “a classic political confrontation: John McCain and the Washington establishment on one side, and we the people on the other.”…
Artistic Coffee
This is one of the lattes that Carrie Levesque made for us this morning at Maynards Market and Kitchen. The lattes were mentioned in this week’s Noshing Around column, and after trying them we report that they’re as rich and frothy as they are beautiful. Levesque has competed in several coffee-art competitions in other states,…
HOW TO PART I: Make a Sling for a Broken Arm
Borderbeat.net reporters Amanda Portillo and Lauren Adams have a little fun with educational first aid videos when out in the desert. The audio slideshows are a fun watch for anyone who enjoys taking a walk in any outdoorsy landscape. (Photographs by John deDios) Watch for the next video: How to stop a bleeding wound.
This Just In: Humans Can Live on Beer Alone
… or so says this Washington man.
Friday Roundtable: State Budget, Arizona Legislature & Rio Nuevo
Once again, the state’s budget problems are center stage on Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable, along with Republican Frank Antenori’s promotion from the Arizona House to the Arizona Senate and the city of Tucson’s loss in a lawsuit over non-partisan election.
Friday Roundtable: Sheriff Clarence Dupnik
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stops by Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable. Watch it after the jump.
Movies at the Screening Room
The Screening Room is mixing it up this year with a variety of films. Tonight at 8 p.m., it’s horror film Necrosis: Six friends are trapped in a cabin on the site of the Donner party’s cannibalistic slaughter. As ghosts emerge, close friends start to turn against each other. At 7 p.m., Saturday, March 6,…
The Onion: The Real Problem with the Demise of the Newspaper Industry
Gotta love The Onion: How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?
First Friday Shorts at the Loft Cinema
Your friends and neighbors are making movies—and you can see them tonight at First Friday Shorts at the Loft Cinema! Details here. This weekend’s late-night cult classic: Dazed and Confused. The Loft, BTW, is currently screening four Academy Award nominees. When you throw in beer and pizza, this has got to be Tucson’s best theater,…
Access Tucson Extends Closure
Access Tucson has announced via e-mail that it is extending its shutdown in light of city funding cuts: On January 27th Access Tucson announced that facilities would be closed February 10th through March 9th to save money and allow Access Tucson the time to work with the City of Tucson on a plan that keeps…
New Adventures in Breathing: Inhalable Chocolate Comes to America
Le Whif breathable chocolate. I was listening to NPR earlier this week when a story came on about the New York debut of Le Whif, an inhalable chocolate product developed by a Harvard scientist. It’s already available in Europe. I finally got around to checking out the Le Whif Web site today and it’s everything…
Booze Blog Launches!
Aaron DeFeo, the bar manager at Hotel Congress and Maynards Market and Kitchen, has launched this new boozealicious blog about the ever-evolving cocktail programs he heads up. Is it happy hour yet?
Cereal-Eating Contest This Weekend
Hey milkbreath! The Cereal Boxx is celebrating National Cereal Day with a cereal-eating contest at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, March 7. Owner Terra Schacht said contestants will compete to see who can finish two bowls of cereal with milk the fastest. The type of cereal will be announced on the day of the event, and prizes…
Sierra Club Update: “There is Little Motivation by Legislators to Stop Most of the Ridiculous, Unconstitutional And … Generally Bad Legislation”
Here’s the latest dispatch from the Arizona Legislature, courtesy of Sierra Club lobbyist Sandy Bahr: Q: How many economists does it take to screw in a light bulb?A: None. If the light bulb really needed changing, market forces would have already caused it to happen. March 5, 2010 Hi everyone! Apparently, there is little motivation…
Dog of the Day: Amy
Amy is one of the dogs at Cold Wet Noses. Here’s what it says about Amy at tucsoncoldwetnoses.com: Amy is a lab/terrier mix (we think) and about 10 months old. She has easy to care for short, wiry black fur and she is long and lanky! She will probably fill out a bit more, but…
Grijalva Leaning Toward Supporting Senate Health-Care Bill?
From Talking Points Memo: In a meeting with House progressives today, Obama made the pitch. Speaking to reporters in the Speaker’s lobby off the House floor, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said the President reminded them that “If this opportunity passes, much of our agenda, on the progressive side…it would be difficult, if…
Would Eliminating Federal Earmarks Really Bring Down Federal Spending?
In The Skinny this week, I talk about Republican Jonathan Paton’s vow to not seek earmarks for Southern Arizona. Paton, who is one of four Republicans seeking to unseat Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, argues that the process is corrupt and suggests that Southern Arizona will get more money if he doesn’t ask for earmarks because he…
GOP Civil War: McCain vs. Randy Pullen
An interesting story from Hotline.com involving Sen. John McCain and former national Republican committeeman Mike Hellon on one side and current GOP state chair Randy Pullen and current National Republican Committeeman Bruce Ash on the other that we missed last week: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has lost the endorsement of a key leader of his…
Mr. Walkup, Fix This Pothole!
Hate potholes? Like complaining? Last month, the city of Tucson rolled out a new feature that allows citizens to report annoying bumps in the road, graffiti and the like for city workers to clean up. By going to SeeClickFix.com, you can plot the blight on a Google Map, and the city will (in theory) patch…
The Latest From Mars: Arabia Terra
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona A new batch of Mars photos has been uploaded at the HiRISE Web site. The above pic shows sand dunes and inverted craters in Arabia Terra. HiRISE team member Nathan Bridges tells us: This image shows dark sand dunes and inverted craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. The sand is…
Tucson Loses Court Fight Over Partisan Elections
Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Miller has ruled that state law trumps the city of Tucson charter when it comes to having non-partisan, ward-only elections. Republican Jonathan Paton pushed the law last year as a member of the state Senate. The City of Tucson filed a suit claiming that the city should have the…
Friday Night Rock ‘N’ Roll: Harlem at Club Congress
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to rock. Harlem is coming to town! More Information here.
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
All About the Bread
Despite growing up in Tucson and taking Spanish classes for the better part of two decades, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I discovered, at least in Southern Arizona, that tortas aren’t cakes, like I had always been taught. To my delight, tortas are savory, delicious Mexican sandwiches. Kool Tortas is tucked…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Now Showing at Home
The Vicious Kind; Cold Souls; Ponyo (Blu-ray)
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
Hooked on Garage
When the Los Angeles band Lords of Altamont began about a decade ago, they set out to strike a balance between purist garage-rock traditions and a heavier hard-rock sound. “We found that we didn’t exactly fit with the Beatle boots and Rickenbacker guitars guys, and (were) not quite like the Nashville Pussy and Supersuckers guys,”…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m a pan blanco, and my wife is puertorriqueña. Our son basically looks white, while a casual observer might admit that there is some Latin going on there. I’m not sure how this pertains to my question—it may or may not be worth mentioning. Our son is a high-functioning autistic 12-year old. The…
Dollars vs. Neighborhoods
The cafeteria at Richey Elementary School is more accustomed to fish sticks and lime jello than artistic renderings of transmission-line poles. But poles took center stage on Wednesday, Feb. 24, as a small crowd arrived to chew over Tucson Electric Power’s latest high-voltage proposals. The company plans to string a new 138-kilovolt backup line from…
Sunny Solutions
When Chuck Dunn, a self-professed solar-energy lover, built his Tucson home in 2007, he says it made sense to install 96 solar panels on his roof. Now, when those sweat-inducing summer months arrive, Dunn’s 6,000-square-foot house produces no electric bill. “They just do their job every day,” he said. “They start with the sunlight in…
Trash Troubles
In Marana, there are two sets of buttons being worn around town. Town Councilmember Herb Kai says he’s wearing both. “Unbeknownst to me, someone made them. I think it’s just a family joke about watching two brothers fight with each other,” Kai says. Kai is referring to a 600-acre parcel he owns that’s currently in…
Mailbag
DiGiovanna Needs to Stop Focusing on Boobs Did James DiGiovanna see the same movie I did? (“Tolstoy, Plus Boobs,” Cinema, Feb. 18). Naturally, as an American male, he focused on the boobs. As a woman with a Slavic background and one familiar with Tolstoy’s life and work, I focused on the nuanced portrayal of Bulgakov,…
Danehy
It’s Oscar time, and you know what that means! OK, I don’t know what that means, either, but I might actually tune in to the last 15 minutes, just to see if the gutless wonders who run Hollywood will reward The Hurt Locker and leave James Cameron to cry in his billion-dollar box-office take from…
Soundbites
Local cd-release roundup; don’t disappear on Friday; celebrate the blues; short takes
Quirks of Comedy
Comedy is a funny thing. At the theater, what makes some grin makes others grimace. While some double over with laughter, others sit stone-faced or look like they would rather be attending a funeral than having paid good money to be sitting where they are. Then there are all kinds of comedic styles. There’s farce…
Winged Threat
It sounds like a horror movie: A hungry moth marches across the country, attaching itself to prickly pear cacti and feeding until the plant looks as if it has been destroyed by dynamite. With all the plants in a particular landscape devoured, the moth moves on to the next prickly pear landscape, the next, and…
Noshing Around
Coffee Art; Nan Tian BBQ; New Eastside Farmers’ Market; Noshing Notes
Hard-Core Art
Author Neal Gabler once suggested that the difference between art and entertainment is that entertainment tells you how to respond, whereas art simply presents itself as it is and allows you to have your own reaction. If that’s the case, the three short Samuel Beckett plays currently onstage at the Rogue Theatre are some pretty…
The Skinny
Dashing for dollars; earmark remarks; Antenori moves up
Live
Andrew Collberg, Will Elliott, Rory O’Rear, Bajo Turbato, Clay Koweek
Making Light Dance
Back in 1979, when Harold Jones’ twins were small girls, one of them dropped her bike in the dirt. It was a typical Tucson day with a blinding sun, and the bars of the bike cast deep shadows in the sand. The wheels glowed in the brilliant light and spun round so fast that the…
Media Watch
KVOA, KMSB to end news partnership; Ann Brown lands PR gig with Caliber Group; Spindle accepts tv position in Phoenix; Belo inks Anderson as new sales manager
Nine Questions
Mike Wilkins
T Q&A
Sylvia Haskvitz
Police Dispatch
Bumping Bronco; you can have my crutches when you pry them from my cold, dead hands
Relationships Revealed
In a “note from the author” tacked on to the end of her new novel, The Butterflies of Grand Canyon, Flagstaff-based Margaret Erhart explains that the book arose from “a need to express” her “appreciation for the incredible landscape of the Grand Canyon.” The canyon—at once romantic and scary—indeed provides a compelling backdrop in Erhart’s…
Military Women
It is four hours until show time, and Jeanmarie Simpson is sitting in an empty theater, reading over the script for Coming in Hot, a play that she has been working with for months. Simpson, the sole performer in this one-woman show, writes in the margins and on separate sheets of paper, reflecting on the…
Downing
I love Tucson, the city. The city of Tucson, not so much. As the recession trickles miserably down to the local level, we obviously can’t expect too much from state, county and city governments—and who ever expected much from the state of Arizona, anyway?—but there’s stuff that the city does and doesn’t do that’s enough…
The Monitors: Three Way Disco (Self-Released)
The Monitors sound like a band that rocks because rocking is simple, pure fun. Three Way Disco, the Tucson trio’s third album in two years, is hard-charging, infectious and never lets up, cramming 12 songs into 30 minutes. (The band has made its albums available for free at themonitorsrock.com.) The Monitors formed in late 2007,…
Weekly Wide Web
Now newspapers fit into the digital age was the hot topic at a recent alternative-newsweekly conference that several Tucson Weekly staffers attended. One of the speakers was Ken Doctor, a media analyst who spent 21 years with Knight Ridder. I’ve just finished reading his new book, Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News…
Guest Opinion
When a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court recently gave corporations new power to flood money into political ads, the court’s senior Republican judge went ballistic. The court’s ruling threatens the integrity of elected institutions by encouraging “corporate domination of politics” and “corruption,” warned John Paul Stevens in his scathing 90-page dissenting opinion against the…
Tracy Shedd: EP88 (Eskimo Kiss)
Tucsonan Tracy Shedd switches from guitar to piano for a new EP that explores a somber and more delicate sound, reveling in the lightly swaying melodies. EP88 is five songs that go well with a relaxed twilight, hushed and moody, but satisfying, like a slow stretch. Building the album around the piano also pares down…
Buddy Bummer
Buddy-cop movies were far from high art when they dominated multiplexes in the ’80s. They were brash, politically incorrect crap—and proud of it. Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop and, one of my personal faves, Tango and Cash were trash cinema, lush with violence, vulgarity and nudity. After reading that director Kevin Smith would, in essence,…
Not a Mere Weekly
We set what I believe is a Tucson Weekly record last Thursday (Feb. 25) for the most blog entries posted in one day on The Range: The Tucson Weekly’s Old Pueblog. On that one day alone, we published 21 entries, ranging from silly stuff (a brief on Fox News incorrectly—we think—identifying J.D. Hayworth as a…
Rich Hopkins and Luminarios: El Otro Lado/The Other Side (San Jacinto)
Most Tucson music fans know what to expect from this longtime local act—sun-scorched Sonoran garage rock, with tinges of Latin American music—but Hopkins and company do it as well as ever on their latest disc. Throughout, Hopkins doesn’t sing so much as rhythmically speak—in the tradition of Lou Reed and Steve Wynn—which gives his songs…
Something in the Water
I like this trend of directors starting off their George Romero remakes with Johnny Cash tunes. Zack Snyder began his Dawn of the Dead remake with “The Man Comes Around,” and director Breck Eisner has utilized Cash’s version of “We’ll Meet Again” to kick off his redo of The Crazies. Cash’s wavering, vulnerable voice acts…
City Week
“What’s the Matter With Matter? How the Universe Lost Its Antimatter and Why It Became So Dark;” Ken Olson Foundation Benefit; “What’s Blooming?” wildflower tours; Arizona Bass Players Festival
Taking the Term “Bike Lover” to a Whole New Level…
The folks over at BikeSmut really like bicycles. And sex. How much, you ask? Find out for yourself tomorrow night, when they ride through the Old Pueblo to show their latest flick, Bike Porn 3. Event details here.
Brewer: Martin’s Disco Fever
Here’s a campaign video from Gov. Jan Brewer that’s a little more concise—and catchier—than her last one, which we posted earlier this week.
Hayworth: McCain Hasn’t Done Anything For Arizona
Republican J.D. Hayworth’s latest salvo against Sen. John McCain focuses on what he has delivered for Arizonans.
MOCA Opens This Saturday!
The Museum of Contemporary Art will be opening at their new downtown location this Saturday night. For event details, click here.
UA in the Hunt for Dark Energy
UA scientists have been tapped to help with the hunt for what exactly all that dark energy in the universe is. The contracts are bringing in a total of $6 million to the university. Daniel Stolte of University Communications has the details: Two University of Arizona research and development groups were selected to develop and…
